Apex Digital is a typical scam company that saw an opportunity and exploited it by making shoddy products to meet an emergency demand. Apex made the digital converter box I was unfortunate enough to buy during the change from analog to digital television. They were one of the few manufacturers that honored the government-issued $40 coupon and was available in the area that I live. A little more than a year after I purchased their product (their warranty is for 1 year only), the product broke. After some searching on the internet, I learned that this is a common problem for this product (cheap capacitor that breaks easily), and called for a replacement. As is typical, their toll free number sent me to someone in India who couldn't/wouldn't do anything. Apex Digital jerked me around for quite a bit, and told me there was nothing they could do, as the product was out of warranty. When I mentioned that this was a common problem, indicating a manufacturing defect, they stated that their products were highly rated on the internet and pointed to their A rating on the BBB website. That's when I decided to do more research.
After checking the Los Angeles BBB site, I learned that they were in fact A rated, but had a very high number of administratively closed complaints. I decided to file a complain myself, as I felt this company should not be highly rated. Then I learned how they "earned" this rating. Shortly after filing my complaint, I was contacted by someone from "warranty and technical support" and told to call them back at 909-230-4845. When I called this number (repeatedly), it asked me for an extension (none was given) or to wait for an operator. After waiting on three separate occasions for over 20 minutes with no one picking up a ringing phone, I gave up. Shortly thereafter, Apex had the BBB dismiss my complaint as "customer not responsive." Nice game they have there - leave a dead phone number with no one attending it, and then blame it on the customer!
Bottom line: this company knows that they make a crappy product and have gone to great lengths to game the system to keep their scam going. Sadly, the BBB only enables this type of behavior through their lack of follow-up.
0 comments